Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches

Urban Ecosystems - We introduce a conceptual model of the urban forest patch as a complex social-ecological system, incorporating cross-scale interactions. We developed this model through an...     

Social interaction targets enhance 13-month-old infants' associative learning

Infants are attentive to third-party interactions, but the underlying mechanisms of this preference remain understudied. This study examined whether 13-month-old infants (N = 32) selectively learn cue–target associations guiding them to videos depicting a social interaction scene. In a visual learning task, two geometrical shapes were repeatedly paired with two kinds of target videos: two adults interacting with one another (social interaction) or the same adults acting individually (non-interactive control). Infants performed faster saccadic latencies and more predictive gaze shifts toward the cued target region during social interaction trials. These findings suggest that social interaction targets can serve as primary reinforcers in an associative learning task, supporting the view that infants find it intrinsically valuable to observe others’ interactions.     

Changing Signs: The Political Pragmatism of Poststructuralism

In a recent issue of The New Republic, Martha Nussbaum singled out Judith Butler for a particularly venomous attack. Nussbaum's criticism was very simple: good theory leads to practical political action, and Butler's theories do not. Nussbaum's criticism of Butler echoes a general criticism leveled against the emerging field of queer theory. Many advocates of sexual rights have suggested that poststructuralist approaches do not have practical political application. In this essay, the authors argue that Butler's work points to a new political pragmatism. In the past, many advocates of sexual rights have focused on essentialized notions of sexual identity. A politically pragmatic approach, informed by Butler's theories, can shift the debate so that the issue of homophobic discrimination, rather than sexual identity, becomes a primary focus of the sexual rights movement.     

The Salience of Multimodal Sensory Stimulation in Early Development: Implications for the Issue of Ecological Validity

Studies of infant development concerned with the emergence of specific perceptual or cognitive abilities have typically focused on responsiveness in only one sensory modality. Research on infant perception, learning, and memory often attempts to reduce multimodal stimulation to “noise” and to control or omit stimulation from other sensory modalities in experimental designs. This type of unimodal research, although important, may not generalize well to the behavior of infants in the multimodal context of the everyday world. Research from animal and human development is reviewed that documents that significant differences in infants' perceptual skills and abilities can be observed under conditions of unimodal versus multimodal stimulation. These studies provide converging evidence for a functional distinction between unimodal and multimodal stimulation during early development and suggest that ecological validity can be enhanced when research findings are generalized appropriately to the natural environment and are not overgeneralized across stimulus properties, tasks, or contexts.     

DENSITY ESTIMATION FOR CLUSTERED DATA

The commonly used survey technique of clustering introduces dependence into sample data. Such data is frequently used in economic analysis, though the dependence induced by the sample structure of the data is often ignored. In this paper, the effect of clustering on the non-parametric, kernel estimate of the density, f(x), is examined. The window width commonly used for density estimation for the case of i.i.d. data is shown to no longer be optimal. A new optimal bandwidth using a higher-order kernel is proposed and is shown to give a smaller integrated mean squared error than two window widths which are widely used for the case of i.i.d. data. Several illustrations from simulation are provided.     

Autobiographical Occasions: Introduction to the Special Issue

Qualitative Sociology -     

Why Did Adorno 'Hate' Jazz?

Adorno's jazz essays have attracted considerable notoriety not only for their negative and dismissive evaluation of jazz as music but for their outright dismissal of all the claims made on behalf of jazz by its exponents and admirers, even of claims concerning the black origins of jazz music. This paper offers a critical exposition of Adorno's views on jazz and outlines an alternative theory of the culture industry as the basis of a critique of Adorno's critical theory. Adorno's arguments are discussed in the context of his wider theoretical commitment to a model of structuration—in both musical and social relations—that establishes a dividing line between a moral aesthetic praxis that can be approved as having 'truth-value' and one that betrays and subverts the truth. In Adorno's analysis, jazz finds itself positioned on the wrong side of that line and, accordingly, is condemned. It is argued that it is Adorno's commitment to a formalist model of art works that has been superseded by modern aesthetic practice in both so-called 'serious' art as well as in the works of the culture industries that binds him to a regressive model of aesthetic praxis. An alternative theory of the culture industry is outlined that explores its positive functions in enhancing the resources available for culture creation through its transmission of aesthetic codes, and in mediating relations between so-called high and low art.     

The fictitious commodity: A union view of labor’s antitrust exemptions

Labor is not a commodity, though there are those who would have it treated as if it was one. Antitrust is probably a futile exercise when applied to business, it would be dangerously destructive to apply it to labor. The raison d'Être of unions is to remove wages from competition and that is a socially necessary purpose. Of course, events of the last several decades have already weakened unions substantially. In their weakened state, unions are less able to accomplish this social purpose, and workers have suffered as a result (for examples see Mishel et al., 1999). Why weaken unions further now?     

Using Readiness Assessment to Improve Career Services: A Cognitive Information‐Processing Approach

This article begins with a review of the use of readiness assessment measures as a strategy for improving career services. A 5‐step process model for readiness assessment is then proposed and current readiness measures are identified. Although considerable research has been conducted on career decision‐making readiness and numerous measures have been developed, there has been limited literature available on the application of readiness assessment in selecting career interventions to meet specific client needs. This article continues with a theory‐based conceptualization of readiness and then links readiness assessment to the selection of career interventions designed to meet clients' needs.